Decolonisation as Unlearning Christianity: Fallism and African Religiosity as Case Studies. Issue 3 (2nd September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Urbaniak, Jakub
• Is Part Of: Black theology. Volume 17:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 223
• Page End: 240
• Publication Date: 2019-09-02
• Subjects: Decolonisation -- Christianity -- fallism -- #MustFall -- African religiosity -- African Initiated Churches [AIC]; Black theology -- Periodicals; Black people -- Religion -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 230.08996
• DOI: 10.1080/14769948.2019.1688088
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1476-9948

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The students whose protests have captured the public imagination of South Africans since 2015, seem to, by and large, have replaced Christianity with a new "religion, " namely decolonisation. On the other hand, many African Christians seem to remain oblivious to the #MustFall movement's revolutionary manifesto. And yet I argue that unlearning Christianity by the fallists and learning it anew by African Initiated Churches, among others, are two sides of the same coin. This article interrogates a few chosen facets of the intricate and multifaceted relationship between the decolonial project and Christianity in South Africa today. After locating my own voice within the decolonial discourse, I seek to interpret fallism as an overt act of a decolonial resistance, and juxtapose it with a covert one, namely the praxis of African religiosity. With Vellem and others, I argue that this praxis offers a powerful resource for liberating Christianity from its colonial/imperial entanglement.